While most bike parks open in June, the dates can vary depending on the location and attitude of the spots. While we wait for the lifts to open again this summer, here are five resorts to ride as early in the season as possible.
French resorts are hoping to make up for a very complicated winter during which most of them never opened their lifts. To achieve this, they are counting on summer sports activities and especially downhill mountain biking for which the lifts should be open again in a few weeks (fingers crossed...). If all the ski areas are traditionally open every day of the week in July and August, some resorts allow you to ride earlier and to multiply the descents.
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Métabief
Traditionally, the Haut-Doubs resort is one of the first to open in France. Located at an altitude of 1,000 metres, the snow cover is less than in the Alps or the Pyrenees and the shapers (those who build and maintain the slopes) can therefore prepare the area earlier. In the Jura resort (which hosted the world championships in 1993), 25 km of downhill mountain bike trails await you. Two black, two red, two blue and one green runs with a negative difference in height of 420m. Above all, Métabief offers the Bike'All (green) and Atlas (blue) tracks to help you discover the discipline more easily and on which experienced riders can enjoy themselves as much as beginners. This year, Métabief was supposed to open the unique Morond chairlift on the weekend of the 8th of May, but it will have to wait for the authorization of the public authorities to put its wheels on the Franc-Comtois tracks.
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Evo Bike Park
Located in Digne-les-Bains in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, this bike park has the advantage of being open all year round thanks to the absence of snow (even if there can sometimes be a thin layer of snow at certain times, which forces the spot to be closed temporarily). Contrary to the classic bike parks, this area works thanks to shuttles, these trucks equipped with bike trailers that run from 9:30am to 6pm. If the difference in altitude is small (240 meters of D+ for tracks ranging from three to five minutes), the Evo Bike Park is known for the quality and fluidity of its tracks. The spot is popular with experienced riders. But among the seven tracks offered, a blue one (Dirty Wave) also allows less experienced riders to have fun.
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Singletracks Bike Park
The Singletracks Bike Park works on the same principle as the Evo Bike Park. Truck shuttles allow to go up the 300 meters of difference in altitude and to enjoy the 16 DH and enduro tracks that this spot located in Jonchère Saint-Maurice near Limoges offers. The opportunity for those who are not close to the Alps and the Pyrenees to ride in good conditions. In the heart of the Monts D'Ambazac, the Singletracks Bike Park is also open all year round. The day pass is 27 euros (to be booked online) or 12 euros if you come for an enduro (but you will have to pedal).
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Les Gets
A huge area for mountain biking, the Portes du Soleil is home to several bike parks, the most famous of which are in Châtel, Morzine, Avoriaz, Champéry-Morgins and Les Gets. It's the latter we're interested in here, with the Express chairlift at Les Chavannes and Les Nauchets scheduled to open at the end of May this year ("Opening dates are subject to change in the light of developments and government announcements", as the website clearly states). The Les Gets bike park offers 128 km of marked trails with 19 lifts, and will be open continuously until September 5. At 29 euros per pass (season pass at 280 euros), you can enjoy a total of 600 km of trails throughout the Portes du Soleil ski area. In other words, you won't have to ski the same runs over and over again.
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Pic du Jer
The Pic du Jer in Lourdes, in the Pyrenees, offers an atypical spot, accessible via a century-old funicular that takes you up to an altitude of 1,000 metres. Up there, the view of Lourdes, Tarbes, Pau, the Argelès Gazost valley and the Pyrenean peaks is superb. For mountain biking, there are five different trails, two of which were built last year (a blue DH and a black enduro). A 450-meter vertical drop, a 20-euro day pass and year-round opening for eight months make the Pic du Jer a popular spot for riders. Three World Cup events were held there between 2015 and 2017, while Lourdes will once again welcome the world's best riders in 2022 for the opening stage of the World Cup.
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